The SOAP

There is only one thing on every fourth year medical student’s mind this week: The Match. One week from today is Match Day, the day when senior med students find out where they will be going for residency. It is impossible to walk down the hospital hallway without getting stopped by a resident, attending, or junior medical student who interrogates you about the upcoming Match. You must avoid the student lounge at all costs, lest you be sucked into the discussion with classmates about where you want to match, where you think you’ll match, or what you’ll do if you don’t match.

The latter possibility, of course, is the most dreaded outcome. Though we will not find out until next Friday where we match, we will find out on Monday if we matched. At noon, students who find out they don’t have a job next year will enter into a new match process called The SOAP (Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program). A list will be published online with residency programs that have open spots for the coming year. Applicants then have exactly two hours to apply to residency all over again. Unmatched students will scour the list for programs to apply to, and submit an essay, letters of recommendation, and a resume to these programs. If there are no open spots in the country for Pediatrics, say, a student who intended to become a pediatrician may need to apply to a completely different specialty.

Our Dean recently sent us a terrifying email, in all caps, warning:

IF YOU ARE AT RISK OF NOT MATCHING YOU NEED TO BE ON CAMPUS NEAR OUR STUDENT AFFAIRS OFFICE BEFORE NOON ON MARCH 11 SO THAT IF YOU ARE UNMATCHED YOU CAN COME IMMEDIATELY TO OUR OFFICE AND BE THERE AT NOON. DO NOT WAIT FOR ME TO CONTACT YOU. JUST COME.

The Dean’s Office has arranged for faculty from every specialty to be available between the hours of noon and 2:00 PM on Monday, for assistance in writing emergency letters of recommendation and help with SOAP applications. You are allowed to bring one person to the Dean’s Office for moral support. Your brand new residency application will be submitted at 2:00 on Monday, interviews occur on Tuesday, and programs begin offering positions on Wednesday. Thus, some people who did not match through the traditional match process can still land a residency spot in time for Match Day on Friday.

Those who still go unmatched through SOAP can take a year off and try again next year. I’m hoping no one in my class will need to undergo this crazy, stressful process. I’ll keep you updated on my match status next week.